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My hunting buddy and I have been hunting California (Valley) Quail in the high desert for many years over our labs. The dogs work great. If you train for NAHRA or HRC your dog will quarter. If you can keep your dog within 15 or so yards you get great opportunities once you bust a covey. It doesn't take too long for the dog to figure out that it has to check every possible bit of cover. The birds hold tight until they think the dog has found them. Then they explode into flight. You have about 2 seconds to get a shot but you can read when your dog is "birdy" and be ready. Coveys can range in size from 30 to 100 birds but it is rare to get more than a few birds out of one. With a 10 bird limit the dog gets plenty of experience and has a great time. Just be sure to have good boots and pack plenty of water. You will be doing a lot of walking.

Work on quartering and steadiness to the shot ahead of hunting. If you are able to hunt across the border in Baja, coveys of several hundred birds are common. You will not be able to replicate the excitement of even a thirty bird covey in training, so be prepared to concentrate more on training than hunting in the beginning.

Quail are low flying birds, so a dog that breaks when the quail start flying or when you put one down will jeopardize taking a second or third shot. It may even put the dog in danger of getting shot

Cactus is a constant problem when quail hunting. I train my dogs to sit without trying to extract the cactus themselves. Sometimes I realize that my dog is not with me and look back and see him sitting patiently behind me several hundred yards, waiting for his master to come pull out a large chunk of cholla. I wear the diagonal cutters in a holster from my fishing tackle box. I find the "dikes" are the most efficient tool for removing the spines. I have a collapsible cordura nylon water bowl in my hunting vest and carry at least a quart of water for the dog.

I use my lab in training with my pointing dogs. She is used to go find the bird that escapes and brings it back so I can manage the field and where the birds are for training the pointers. She handles them softly and delivers them live. Only killed one last summer and I think it died when she pulled it out of heavy cover. As far as hunting upland, she hunts close and slows down and watchs me for the sit command when she gets on birds. Don

If you can find a hunting buddy with an experienced Quail dog, your dog might be best served by running & learning from them. That will save you a bunch of time, trying to teach the game. Also rattlesnake shots & avoidance; quail are the gamefowl where you're probably the most likely to run across snakes.

"They's Just DAWGS"
"Hunting is a skill to be learned whether you do it early or late it still needs to be learned"
"I train dogs, Not papers"